1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for packaging tortillas, and more particularly, to systems and methods for the transfer of stacks of tortillas from counting and stacking assembly lines to bagging operation.
2. Description of Related Art
The commercial production of tortillas requires a series of operations which are traditionally accomplished using manual labor, because no machinery has not been designed to take over these tasks. However, as the popularity of the tortilla grows, competitive business conditions mandate the automation of production lines wherever possible, including the automated packing of stacks of tortillas.
After cooking in an oven, several rows or "tracks" of freshly-cooked tortillas enter into a cooling apparatus where the heat from cooking is rapidly removed. At this point, the tortillas are ready for packaging. However, before this is accomplished, the individual tortillas must be gathered together in stacks of preselected sizes for insertion into bags. While there are automated machines to count and stack the tortillas, the individual stacks which result are currently brought to the packaging machinery by means of manual labor. Thus, for example, a four-track counting-stacking production line requires two laborers to remove the stacks of tortillas and place them on a single conveyor line for packaging.
The system of manual labor to transfer tortilla stacks from the counter-stacker apparatus to packaging machinery requires personnel dedicated to this task. Disadvantages include higher work costs, laborer fatigue, and physical contact between the laborers and the tortillas.
The use of manual labor is not entirely without advantages, however. Laborers are able to precisely place the stacks of tortillas on packaging infeed conveyors, facilitating smooth bagging operations. Further, human operators are also able to ensure that the packaging infeed conveyors are filled to capacity, within the limits of the production line. That is, four tracks of tortilla stacks produced by a counter-stacker apparatus can be smoothly transitioned to a single packaging infeed conveyor belt using human operators. Such operators efficiently fill the infeed conveyor with tortilla stacks such that the minimum number of "empty" conveyor belt blocks, or spaces arrive at the packaging apparatus. Therefore, what is needed, is a system and method for tortilla stack transfer which is automated, and provides all of the advantages of human laborers. More particularly, the automated system and method for tortilla stack transfer should operate to lower work costs, reduce the fatigue of manual laborers, and increase the overall cleanliness of tortilla handling operations. Further, the system and method should efficiently transfer stacks of tortillas to the bagger infeed conveyor, such that the maximum number of empty positions on the conveyor are filled, within the limits of the production line supply.